I recently finished my reread of Codex Alara by Jim Butcher after going on a Roman Fantasy bender after Will of the Many. I’d forgotten how much I liked this series.

Progression Fantasy Scale : 1 Fantasy with progression elements

This series is Fantasy with progression elements because while the main character grows in power and ability hrough the series, the growth all occurs between books and we then only see the fruit of his progress.

Setting: The story takes place on Alara, a magical world inhabited by the denizens of other worlds who have found their way there through some unknown means. The humans (Alarans) are the descendants of a lost Roman legion and can wield the power of elementals called furies to enhance themselves and manipulate the world around them. The world is populated with a lot of other sapient races, all original, and the Alarans have warred with them all, have have driven some to extinction.

The series focuses on Tavi, an orphaned shepherd raised by his aunt and uncle on a farm in a fantasy world where everyone can control elemental of nature except for him.

As with most orphaned and/or farm boys are in fiction, Tavi is incredible brave and capable for his age and gets into a lot of trouble. He must use his head to get out of it since he doesn’t have magic or any martial training.

The series is split POV between Tavi, an agent agent of the crown, and his aunt and uncle. Sometimes there’s overlap, and jumps to enemies. The first time through a lot of the non Tavi chapters felt rough, but on the reread I was very into all of the POVs except for one plot thread in book 4 that’s basically an extended chase scene.

As a warning, there a few instances through the series were woman are captured or magically enslaved by villanous characters and sexual assault is threatened or mentioned. It’s never described on screen.

The audiobook is narrated by Kate Reading, who is very good, but it is a bit odd since the MC is a male. The POV male to female split is close to 50/50 though.